Many people think that all Androids are equal and it's a race to the bottom where the cheapest vendor wins. This could not be farther from the truth. For me, it all began half-a-year ago, when I bought the Samsung Galaxy S III and was absolutely stunned by it, then exploring and comparing it with other Androids. Now that Google has fired a shot across the bow with its low pricing for the unlocked Nexus 4, where does that leave Samsung and its flagship handset?

It seems to me that a lot of these S3 plus points can be replicated with free or cheap apps added to a vanilla Android 4 phone. Or if you're technical, a rooted phone with a custom ROM actually provides a lot of these and a *lot* more configurability than the S3 does.

Exactly. For me, a fully-loaded custom ROM gives a lot more value than NonSense, Bloat-o-blur, etc. Plus, when Keylime Pie is announced in May and starts rolling out to Nexus devices, those of us who own these devices can upgrade to it immediately, or whenever we want. If you're using a FrankenAndroid device like the S3, you're going to be stuck with 4.x until at least January 2014, and you'll probably be lucky to ever get anything greater than 4.2. I really wouldn't mind much of vendors would give people the OPTION of sticking with stock and quick upgrade paths, but most don't.

So, yeah... you can have your shitty vendor bloatware. I'll stick with unlocked vanilla, thank you very much

One thing I WILL agree with him on is the gimped hardware on the Nexus devices. (No SD card slot, no removable battery, no LTE, etc) Google really needs to step it up and give people more options in the hardware department. Can I get a Nexus 7 with HDMI out, PLEASE??